Beshalach: True Freedom
Moving through the desert, the freed Israelites find their source of food in G-d’s manna, the ground around them being covered in dew overnight, waiting to be baked into bread. The Torah is very specific, however, that ביום הששי לקטו לחן משנה, ‘on the sixth day they gathered a double provision’ (Ex.16:22), Moshe explaining that this is so that they may observe שבתון שבת-קדש לה’, ‘Shabbat, the holy Shabbat to the Lord’ (Ex.16:23). This is the second time the word שבת has occurred in the Torah, the first time being in verbal form at the end of the creation process (Gen.2:2-3), but in Beshalach it is the first time we ever see human observance of Shabbat. It is the first time we understand that no work should be undertaken, that two meals should be eaten, symbolized by the two loaves provided. It is the first time that Jewish people participate in one of the founding mitzvot of Judaism, a mitzvah which will be sealed in stone, quite literally, with the giving of the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:8-11).
In Beshalach, Shabbat is no longer theoretical; it is made practical, basic needs like food being taken care of so that it is possible to fully participate. Having been liberated by G-d from their enslavement in Egypt, this is the first moment in which the Jewish people are able to truly rest – they are not fighting to survive, traveling through the desert protected by the pillar of cloud in the day and the pillar of fire at night. One of the first commandments they receive upon leaving Egypt, observing Shabbat offers them the chance to truly enact their freedom, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writing in Studies in Spirituality (2021) that ‘in Moses’ day [Shabbat] meant freedom from slavery to Pharaoh’.[1] Their freedom is no longer a distant concept, out of reach; it is a reality of the here and now, and G-d’s manna allows the Israelites to take up the opportunity fully. This ‘first’ Shabbat of sorts is a foundational moment in Judaism, sowing the seeds for what Shabbat would become practically and spiritually – a haven in which we can nourish our souls and our relationships with others.
Before now, Shabbat has been purely in the spiritual plain as G-d distinguished this day from the others, the Torah telling us that having completed all His work, ויברך ה’ את-יום השביעי ויקדש אתו כי בו שבת מכל-מלאכתו אשר-ברא ה’ לעשות, ‘And G-d blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which G-d had created and made’ (Gen.2:3). At this point, as the only ‘being’ with the possibility to create, G-d allows for the space to cease work and rest, a space with the possibility to replenish the sources of such creativity. In Beshalach, Shabbat moves into the physical plain, too, Rabbeinu Bachya seeking to explain the repetition of the root שבת in the phrase שבתון שבת-קדש with the Kabbalistic idea that this combination of words ‘mean[s] that the [Shabbat] on the day following Moses’ announcement [in Ex.16:23] would be parallel to the [Shabbat] observed in the celestial regions’.[2] It is a parallel but also a borrowing, a moment at the end of a truly physical week in which one can take a moment to breathe, filling one’s soul with a spiritual moment of pause which Rabbi Sacks describes as a type of ‘utopia’ which exists ‘in the midst of time’ rather than ‘at the end of time’.[3]
The vision of Shabbat has changed through time, of course; in our digital age, in which we are constantly available, attached to devices which seem to contain every detail of our lives, Shabbat gives us the opportunity to take a step back, literally switch off, and recenter ourselves, accessing details in our lives which have greater depth. 25 hours without obligations, except those to our friends and family, the people we might see for meals or to catch up. 25 hours with the knowledge that you can’t change anything until it is over, giving you the space to process whatever decisions may have already been taken or may be pending. 25 hours with the freedom and the space to think without immediately acting on those thoughts, allowing our intellectual, emotionally and spiritual perspectives to grow and narrow as they might need. Shabbat is the 25 hours in which we can make the choice to nurture our relationships with ourselves, with others, and with G-d, however one may choose to do so. Now, more than ever, Shabbat is vital to our humanity; in all the rushing constancy of the world, we can forget that we are human and need to refill our creative stores, whatever form that creativity takes. We can forget to look after ourselves, and we can forget about the core of human existence: our relationships with others. Shabbat gives us the time and the choice to pursue these things which nurture and replenish our souls. And that is true freedom.
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[1] Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Studies in Spirituality, (2021), pg.82
[2] Rabbeinu Bachya’s Commentary on Exodus 16:23:1-2
[3] Sacks, pg.83
